Rubel: Stop suing each other and start talking again

It is long past time for Sheriff Kiki Vigil and County Commission Chairman Billy Garrett to stop investigating and suing each other and start talking to each other again.

I’ll admit that when Vigil announced he was planning to take a look into county operations, I was encouraged. I think a fresh set of eyes on what is taking place over there is a good thing. But now, things have gotten ridiculous.

How ridiculous? Last week, Garrett revealed for the first time the four allegations against Vigil that the county had hired an investigator to look into. One of the allegations was that Vigil "contributed to a toxic environment for county employees."

Seriously? We hired somebody to investigate that? Does the county conduct policy establish a specific level of toxicity required for it to be a violation?

The other allegations weren’t much better. Vigil was accused of acting in a threatening manner toward a county employee and saying mean things about the county’s Human Resources Department without providing a factual basis for his criticisms.

One would think the numerous successful lawsuits against the county would be all the factual basis needed. That department is a mess, and the only ones who don’t seem to know it are the county commissioners.

At the conclusion of the investigation, Garrett and fellow Commissioner Wayne Hancock announced they would not pursue an official sanction.

Garrett insisted it was another county employee who brought the complaints, not he and Hancock. Maybe so, but it was the County Commission that decided to take the next step and spend money on this goose chase.

Vigil’s attorney Gene Chavez responded to that happy news by announcing the sheriff was still going ahead with his lawsuit against the county alleging infringement of his free-speech rights. Is there anybody in Doña Ana County who thinks that Vigil has been silenced? Anybody at all?

It is important to remember that all of this started as a fight over money. Vigil made it clear when running for office that he believed the Sheriff’s Office was underfunded, and he would aggressively push to change that. He has certainly fulfilled that campaign promise.

Vigil and his supporters believe that promises were made to him when the county voted to increase its gross receipts tax, and those promises are now being reneged on. Garrett counters that the sheriff’s office will get additional funding, but that there is a process that includes negotiating with the labor union that they have to go through to make that happen. He has asked the sheriff for patience.

I know Vigil’s side of the story, because he agreed to sit down with the Sun-News editorial board and lay it all out. He believes he has been lied to, and has lost all trust in the County Commission. Beyond that, he has come to see Garrett and Hancock as something akin to the enemy, referring to them both as “anti-law enforcement.”

Garrett has always been accessible to us in the past, and incredibly helpful in educating us on the budget process. But he declined our invitation for a meeting this time on the advice of his attorney, given the pending lawsuit.

I will offer that I don’t believe for a second that Garrett wants to lead, or live in, a community that is lacking effective law enforcement.

I don’t know if this can be resolved, given the current level of mistrust. But I do believe that both men want the same things for our county, and that they could achieve those goals more effectively by working with each other instead of investigating and suing each other.

Walter Rubel is editorial page editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.